Lead Them On - Getting the Spiders to Notice Your Site
by John Calder

© 2004, John Calder
http://www.TheEzine.net

You've found your market, developed a marketing and business strategy, identified or created your products, and finally finished your site. Everything else is in place, and you're ready to get listed in the search engines. In order to get indexed, you will need to let the search engine spiders know about your site in the first place.

Are there ways to lure the spiders to your site without manual submission? Thankfully yes, and in fact, many professional SEOs recommend that you follow these methods rather than submit your pages directly.

The very best way, if possible, is to get a link to your site from another site that is already indexed, spidered frequently, and is related to your site. This may include mentions in blogs, news releases, and so on. This technique can get you spidered very quickly, sometimes within a few days or less!

You can also stick to tried and true methods such as posting on forums and writing articles for any of the various article directories. If you do this, don't spam. Follow their rules, offer helpful answers, and don't overdo your "sig file". Private membership forums may not be indexed, so be sure that the forums where you post are listed in search results, and that relatively recent posts are displayed.

Whatever method you use to get the spiders to visit, you'll need to provide them with a good site map. Whether created manually or with software, a site map is a listing of and a link to all the pages on your site. If you have more than about 100 pages, consider having a multi-page site map, and make sure each site map page links to every other site map page. Put a link to your site map on your home page at the very least, and preferably on every page. Try to make your site map pages as simple and clutter-free as possible.

About the Author

John Calder is the owner/editor of The Ezine Dot Net. Subscribe Today and get real information YOU can use to help build your online business today! http://www.TheEzine.Net

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